


In the Absence of Strong Evidence to the Contrary, One May Step Out of the Way of the Charging Bull

by starsrush (rusticthrill)



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Gen, M/M, au in which i change everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 02:40:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18217085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rusticthrill/pseuds/starsrush
Summary: Kaz has always been preoccupied with something. Whether it was violence, war, money, women, revenge, or whatever else, he was always thinking of it. Anger used to be the one he thought of most, back when he got saved by Snake. When Ocelot grins at him with all his teeth and hangs off of Snake just because he can, because he already has the real thing, why not dig the knife a little deeper into Kaz’s side?That all feels stupid now.





	In the Absence of Strong Evidence to the Contrary, One May Step Out of the Way of the Charging Bull

**Author's Note:**

> imagine  
> 1\. mgsv is completely different only bc no eli  
> 2\. les enfants happened in 1985 not 72
> 
> yep

**1985**

Snake comes back to the base with two babies, hands one to Kaz and one to Ocelot. 

Privately, Kaz wonders if both babies would have gone to him if he had both of his arms. 

Ocelot is not one for children, and his lip curls at the squirming baby in his grip. The baby in Kaz’s arms is quiet and still, blue eyes blinking up at him. He tries not to read into the thoughts of the Snake in front of him, knows that he’s not  _ him _ , but he can barely help himself. Most likely, he handed the babies randomly, the one in his left arm to Kaz, who stood to the left of him, and the one in his right arm to Ocelot, who stood to the right of him. Kaz’s brain reads it first as, he handed the easy baby to the man with one arm and the bratty baby to the man with both arms. 

Ocelot says, “what is this,” and Snake frowns at him, a frown that tells Kaz that Ocelot probably already knows, and is still playing like he doesn’t know what’s happening.

“Clones,” Snake says, gestures to himself. Oh.

“Why are they here?” Kaz asks, rocks the baby in his arm a little to see his eyes close peacefully. When he looks back at the other two men, Ocelot seems chagrined by this interaction. 

Snake shrugs easily, gestures to the two babies when he speaks, “I found them, so…”

Ocelot hands the baby in his arms back to Snake, and leaves. Probably to call  _ him _ , but Snake just steps back over to Kaz. They haven’t been on bad terms, or anything, but there is a distance that wasn’t quite there before. The baby in Snake’s arms has a fistful of fabric from one of the pouches on Snake’s chest. 

“He’s strong,” Kaz says, and he goes to lift his arm to stroke the kid’s forehead, and can barely swallow the annoyed noise that wants out when only the stump of his right arm lifts and the hand he was expecting never appears. Snake doesn’t say anything, but he steps close enough to hold the babies side by side, the quiet one being disturbed by a kicked out leg from the bratty one.

“Eli,” Snake gestures to the one in his arms, “David,” the one in Kaz’s arm.

 

⟶

**1986**

The babies are very different in personality and looks. David’s hair is dark and his eyes are almond shaped, he has too much baby fat still to tell how much exactly he will look like his-- father, or clone, or whatever. His nose already resembles  _ him _ , though it seems sharper. Eli’s hair is light, however, with deeper-set eyes. Ocelot takes one look at the baby and says, “Looks like the Boss,” and by the purse of Snake’s lips Kaz can tell he’s not talking about  _ him _ . 

Some kind of jealousy flares at the mention of her, the one person who Kaz could never compete with, but he stomps it down, refocuses on the babies rolling around the floor of his office. 

Ocelot, who isn’t good with kids, and Snake, who is gone too frequently to care for them, leave the babies with him mostly. Because he is always here, and the two kids seem to have taken a liking to him. Eli is difficult, but so is Kaz. He thinks his mother would have scolded him if he told her he has tamed a fussy baby by being more stubborn than him, but it’s worked, hasn’t it?

Shortly after the two babies were brought to base, Kaz got fitted for prosthetics. He was stubborn enough to keep on without for a year after the entire Phantom debacle, but the introduction of two babies in his daily life has now made that kind of stubbornness seem idiotic. He spent three months sweating nervously as he struggled to carry one baby back to his room, where the sleeping mats were, while the other gurgled on the blanket on his office floor waiting for him to come back. Snake seems pleased by the development, but he doesn’t say anything about it.

The process to get the prosthetics was long and arduous, and eventually Ocelot had to take over for Kaz with the babies when he left to get them fitted. Snake helped Kaz plan, and looking back later, he realizes that Snake pushed quite hard for the non-military grade, as close to human as possible prosthetics. At the time, it seemed baffling, but Kaz went with it, and after three more months of excruciating process, Kaz is cleared and has two arms and legs again, even if there is significant strain across his shoulders and hips that he has yet to fully adjust to. 

Over the three months, Snake called approximately twice everyday to plead with Kaz to try and calm the babies by voice alone. Ocelot would never call him but several times Kaz could hear him there too, making irritated huffs at the two kids. That makes Kaz feel...good, perhaps. That these two kids were so clearly wrapped around his finger and used to him that even Ocelot could not compare was an ego boost like nothing else. He couldn’t even win against Ocelot when it came to  _ him _ , and yet  _ his _ kids were here and whining for Kaz and rejecting all other carers. 

Getting back to base was not like coming back home. The base is too riddled with bad memories and bad events that stab Kaz like a knife. It’s a self-flagellation to continue to be on the base, to continue to do work for Snake, to continue to subject himself to Ocelot’s sneer. 

It does feel like home when he steps back into his room and the two babies start making whiny noises, though. Somehow, in the three months he was sole caretaker, they slid so solidly under his skin that he shakes a little with the force of his emotions at the sight of them. Snake is there, lounged on one of the mats, eyes narrowed. He’s easy to ignore, though, when Kaz can go to the babies and brush his left hand over Eli’s wispy blonde hair. David is making louder noises now, as his sibling gets all the attention, and Kaz hovers his new hand over him, lets him grab with chubby fingers onto the fake flesh covered metal. 

Snake massages his shoulders that night, as the babies crawl, crawl!, around the floor of the room. Kaz is a little emotional at their growth, at how much he’s missed, and Eli is louder now, makes noises that are almost babbles. David is still quiet, but he responds to Eli’s noises occasionally, mimics the more outgoing boy frequently. 

They end up sleeping on the same mat, Snake’s metal arm over Kaz’s waist, babies sleeping quietly feet away. 

Kaz talks to them, a lot. He’s always had a lot to say to anyone who would listen, so of course now that he has an audience of two who are always with him he fills the silence with his voice. He mainly tells them fairy tales from his youth, tries to get them to repeat words after him, and points at himself and says “Kaz,” over and over. He’s not raising them bilingual, or anything, but all the toys he gets end up being in Japanese, and sometimes he tells a story better in Japanese. Eli is too fussy to be in the sling, but David is quiet and easy and seems to enjoy being in the sling. It’s easier to have the babies close to him like that, David’s warmth pressed to his chest and his fingers scrabbling with the ends of his scarf or his uniform. Eli refuses to not be moving, though, so half of Kaz’s attention is spent on watching the other baby out of the corner of his eye.

When Eli gets too rowdy, raises his voice to piercing levels, throws toys, smacks David with his palm a little too hard, Kaz always tells him about Urashima Taro, tells him how he shouldn’t be disobedient, and the tone of his voice in these moments always makes Eli frown at him. Sometimes, Kaz will snap at him a little too loud, a little too harsh, and Eli will burst into tears. The thing about the kids are, David cries easily, but Eli does not. So, when David cries, Eli will not, but when Eli cries, David will also cry. Frustration sometimes builds in these moments, when Kaz has to get up from his desk, or has to put down what he’s doing, to sink down next to the kids and lift them into his arms. Rock them for several minutes until their cries subside to sniffles.

But, he sleeps next to the two of them everyday, fed them their formula for months, is switching them slowly to solid foods. He never felt paternal before, but now he isn’t sure he can be separated from these kids ever again.

Of course, through a twist of luck, Ocelot is the one who sees them walk first. 

Eli has been pulling himself along on things for awhile, David mimicking him right along. They were fussy and annoying all day long, fingers clutching Kaz’s pants when he was sitting, using him as a support as they lifted their little feet awkwardly. They didn’t go down for their nap easily, Kaz had to stop working and lay down with them, hum some tune he pulls from his memories that his mother would hum to him. 

Snake and Ocelot filter into his office after the nap. Ocelot is awkward around the grabby baby hands on his pants, contrastingly Snake is receptive to the lifted arms. David goes easily into Snake’s arms, Kaz knows the hand that goes around Snake’s neck is clutched onto the little ponytail there, both of the boys like to grab hair. Snake stays standing, Ocelot sits and gives Eli a hand to hold onto. 

It’s some stupid argument they end up on, Kaz stubborn as always, Ocelot prim and knowing, Snake choosing Ocelot’s side again. Some things never change, and even in fake-Snake’s somehow Ocelot keeps winning where Kaz keeps losing. 

“Don’t be so rigid,” Ocelot says, the familiar sneer on his face. Eli and David can sense Kaz’s tension, Eli’s face is starting to scrunch from where he is wobbling on two feet and holding onto Ocelot’s pants. David’s long buried his face into Snake’s neck so he can’t see the other two men. Kaz takes a deep breath, sits back in his chair. 

“It’s a bad idea,” Kaz says, directed at Snake this time, no point bothering with Ocelot. He can hear Ocelot’s snort at this, and Eli starts babbling something. Snake sighs, lowers David back to the ground and ignores the protest the little baby gives to this. 

“Let’s talk outside,” Snake says, and Kaz can only grind his teeth so hard in the face of Ocelot’s rolled eyes. 

David and Eli are immediately loud in protest when Kaz leaves the room, but Ocelot makes hushing noises that quiet them. Some part of him feels bad that he might have accidentally given them some excessive separation anxiety after he disappeared for the three months, but they’re babies, they’re resilient. 

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Snake says, plaintively, like that was what Kaz was thinking at all. 

“I’m not,” Kaz huffs, rolls his eyes. “You’re not the only person who could be in the crossfire.”

Snake just looks at him, and it pisses Kaz off. He’s not  _ him _ so he doesn’t get to act like he knows how Kaz thinks, he’s not  _ him _ , so he doesn’t get to say these things like he knows Kaz better than Kaz knows himself. That act was enough to piss him off when the real thing did it, having this phantom of the man standing in front of him with whatever memories the real thing gave him make his skin crawl with anger. Snake must be able to tell this is riling him up, because he opens his mouth to say something.

Whatever it is is cut off by a wail from Kaz’s office, a distinctly Eli wail. 

Kaz doesn’t wait, turns on his heel and is back to the room in two steps. Ocelot hasn’t moved from his seat, but Eli is a few feet away face down on the floor, big, gulping sobs echoing a little. David is wobbling dangerously on two feet next to Eli, no supports at all. 

“They walked,” Ocelot shrugs, when Kaz’s eyebrows shoot up.

That stings, that Ocelot got to see this and Kaz didn’t, but he pushes that feeling of jealousy away as ruthlessly as he always does. Instead, he steps over to the boys, plucks Eli from the ground into his arms and close enough to David for him latch onto his leg and not fall over. Eli is fine, no scratches or bloody noses or anything, but he has fat tears rolling down his cheeks and is still bawling. Ocelot is looking very uncomfortable now, and Snake has stepped back in behind Kaz. Kaz hums, lets Eli press his face to his shoulder and hiccup into calmness. Stepping slowly, to give David time to stagger along, Kaz makes it back to his chair. Once there, he pulls David onto his lap as well. 

“I won’t be happy about it, but I’m outvoted.” Kaz says, eventually, after Eli has quieted down and stopped heaving sniffling breaths in. Ocelot grins, claps his hands together and stands up. 

“It was nice speaking with you,” he says annoyingly, and brushes past Snake on his way out the door. 

Snake lingers, eyes on the babies in Kaz’s lap. Kaz doesn’t know how he feels about the two kids, wonders if he feels some parental urge towards them.  _ He _ wouldn’t, because they were not part of the plan and are still little babies who can’t do anything. Snake seems so much more human than  _ him _ though, despite how contradictory it is. They’re supposed to be the same person, or whatever, but Snake has always been more someone else than who he was supposed to be. He’s gentler, more caring, thinks before he says things. 

In the end, Snake sits in the seat Ocelot just vacated. “Mind if I stay in here?” He asks, but his fingers are already steepled across his waist and he’s sunk down in the chair like he won’t be getting up.

Lifting a shoulder, Kaz says, “do whatever you want.”

 

⟶

 

There is nothing more Kaz hates than the way he keeps rolling onto his back like a weak dog for Snake. Not even just for Snake, for  _ him _ and all his ridiculous lies and manipulations and antics. He’s acted like a well-trained hound for so long of his life and for what? He lost half of his limbs for a man who sent him some ghost of himself and still has yet to show his face to him. The anger that burns through him because of that is enough to keep him up at night. 

At least Snake seems to care, seems to know how humans should interact with each other, treat each other. He may have all the memories of Kaz the other man has, but he never speaks of them, never asks how he became the shell of the man from the seventies. There’s something cruel about Snake being given all those memories of him, being given all those thoughts of him, and then sent to him. But, Snake is nicer, has a softer touch, listens to him and doesn’t rile as easily.

Kaz and the kids are both asleep, David and Eli laid next to each other on the mats Kaz has on the floor, Kaz next to David with his flesh arm across both of the babies. At the sound of a key turning in the lock, he wakes immediately and rolls to be on his back, to watch the door swing open.

Snake is silhouetted by the hall light, and Kaz could nearly mistake him for  _ him _ , if not for the shrapnel visible in the shadow. 

Irrationally, Kaz wants to spread his legs for him, like some old whore with no decency. It sparks anger in him, makes him want to tell the other man to get out. Snake steps in the room, though, pushes the door closed quietly.

The other man takes his time stripping, he just came back from a mission, Kaz knows, and he takes some of Kaz’s old sweatpants out to put on. This is too...they haven’t done anything like this in a year or more, it’s a little too achingly domestic for Kaz, especially with the babies sleeping next to him. He hates feeling like this, like a dog that does what Snake wants, a dog that comes to heel when called. He doesn’t like being beholden to Snake, doesn’t like being beholden to  _ him _ .

When Snake finally lowers himself to his knees onto the mat next to Kaz, he leans to hover over him, an arm placed carefully next to his head. Kaz is quiet, just looks at the other man.

“I finally get what you were concerned about,” Snake whispers, is leaning closer to Kaz.

Kaz doesn’t say anything, waits for him to continue. 

He doesn’t continue after all, but his eyes drift over to the babies, and he’s hit the nail on the head.

It takes the slightest tip of his head back and a barely there hand on Snake’s neck to make their lips meet, the kiss slow and chaste. It feels good, something like and unlike how it felt to kiss  _ him _ back in the seventies, back when he was young and carefree. Where things with the real man were sweltering and addictive and rough, things with the phantom are slow and burning and soothing. The hand on his cheek is cold metal, but it’s more grounding than anything he’s ever felt.

They end up sleeping on the same mat, with the metal arm over his waist.

 

⟶

**1987**

The kids are a little passed two years old now, and Kaz wants to rip his hair out. 

He’s only just gotten them off calling him ‘dad,’ and now they are running full tilt around corners and climbing up the side of things and fighting each other. It’s crazy, how they are, and Kaz shouldn’t be surprised. Of course clones of  _ him _ would have the most terrible of terrible twos. Even quiet, sweet David is a little monster, has poked Kaz in the eye at least five times when he was mad about being carried.

Snake thinks it’s funny, but only because he tangentially has to deal with them. He will sometimes catch a rogue Eli when he’s sprinting away from Kaz who is struggling to keep hold of a wiggling David. Ocelot likes to teach them more fun ways to make Kaz’s life more difficult, including shortcuts around the base and curse words to yell when frustrated. 

Kaz thinks he’s told the Urashima Taro story five hundred times now, in English and Japanese, and Eli just sticks his tongue out each time. 

When Kaz is really angry at them, when he’s tired from chasing them for half of the day and doing the books for the other half of the day, he tells them particularly vicious stories his mom used to tell him. He’ll say, “do you want to hear about jellyfish?” and then detail how the jellyfish was fooled by the monkey and failed in his mission, and how the King ripped all of his bones out in punishment. 

Snake walked in on this once, and looked disapproving. He swept a sniffly David into his arms and smothered him in kisses. Eli had whined, shouted, “me too! Me too!” 

“Why aren’t you affectionate with them?” Snake asks one night, when he’s pulled Kaz against the hard muscles of his body and Eli’s face is buried into Kaz’s chest. 

“I am,” Kaz murmurs, on the verge of sleep.

“Hm,” Snake hums, the noise rumbling in his chest.

“This is how I was raised,” Kaz eventually mumbles.

“Just think about it,” Snake says, muffled by his mouth being pressed to Kaz’s hair. 

 

⟶

 

Eli and David are napping on the mat behind Kaz’s desk when Snake slams the door open. It makes all three of them jump, Eli and David rubbing their eyes to get the sleep out of them and Kaz standing up from his chair. He’s long since stopped waiting for Snake out by the helicopter platform, lets Ocelot do that alone now. The kids are too young to be out there, and he won’t leave them alone in the base. 

Snake has a bundle pressed to his chest, his eyes hard when they meet Kaz’s. Ocelot is lingering behind the taller man, just barely peeking around his shoulder. 

Stepping across the office, Snake dumps the bundle into Kaz’s hands and turns on his heel, Ocelot backpedalling quickly to get out of his way. 

It’s another baby. Because of course it is.

David and Eli are both tugging at his pant legs to get his attention, demanding to see. 

“I’m sure you can guess,” Ocelot simpers.

“I can,” Kaz answers, moves the blankets the baby is coddled in a little to see a face. The baby looks closer to David, dark hairs already there. 

“His name is George,” Ocelot says, before he leaves.

 

⟶

 

Kaz has always been preoccupied with  _ something _ . Whether it was violence, war, money, women,  _ him _ , revenge, or whatever else, he was always thinking of it. Anger used to be the one he thought of most, back when he got saved by Snake. When  _ he _ sent him some phantom to continue where they left off. When Ocelot grins at him with all his teeth and hangs off of Snake just because he can, because he already has the real thing, why not dig the knife a little deeper into Kaz’s side? 

That all feels stupid now.

George is the most serious baby Kaz has ever seen. Eli and David are somehow better and worse. Better, because they are jealous of the baby and try to not piss him off now, and worse because they get frustrated if Kaz spends too much time fretting over George and act out to get attention. 

He’s sitting cross-legged on the mats in his room with George on his lap, Eli and David against his thighs, all asleep, when it hits him.

These kids barely stand a chance. Clones of Big Boss, currently contained on a base easily within reach of the man himself. Eli and David are already violent, no matter how much Kaz tells them to knock it off, they’re already curling their fingers and imitating Ocelot and Snake.

Stroking fingers through David’s dark hair, Kaz tries to plan.

He’s good at backstabbing  _ him _ , isn’t he? Maybe not. He always fails, doesn’t he? The man always knows. Always sniffs Kaz’s deception out, always makes sure he knows he’s made a mistake in going behind his back. But, the only man here is Snake, who is kind and trusting. Ocelot is here too, but Ocelot doesn’t know Kaz the way the other two do. Ocelot is easier to misdirect because he thinks Kaz is a hotheaded idiot with no knowledge. Snake can piece his thoughts together eventually, not with the speed  _ he _ can, but still possible.

Maybe, the best revenge is to take these kids away from the life they’re so obviously being set up for. Kaz likes that. He wants to do that. Take himself and the kids away from the men who are puppetting them and dragging them around like things instead of humans. 

The rest comes easy after that. Kaz, ever the well-trained dog, knows how to get what he wants. He plans meticulously, has five backup plans. He doesn’t plan for Snake, though, and when Snake shows back up from his mission days early and opens the door to Kaz’s room, he thinks he might have to wait another several months.

Snake is mindful of the sleeping babies, undresses slowly and quietly, leans back over Kaz the way he always does. 

He presses their lips together hard, harder than usual, drags a whimper out of Kaz’s throat. 

“I know you,” he says, into Kaz’s lips, and Kaz can feel the anger starting to roll in his chest at that.

“Not because of his memories,” he continues, metal hand pressed to Kaz’s stomach.

Kaz turns his head, but Snake trails his lips to his ear. 

“I’m not him,” he murmurs, and the cold of his metal arm is seeping into his gut.

He wedges a hand between his and Snake’s chests, forces the man to pull away a little so Kaz can look at his face.

“What are you talking about,” Kaz whispers, barely getting the sounds out.

“Ocelot is suspicious of you,” Snake says, “he told me he thinks you’re going to betray us again.”

Us, as in Ocelot and Snake. How funny. 

“Why would he think that?” Kaz says, and he really doesn’t know, because he has done everything right. 

“Because you’ve been particularly well-behaved recently,” Snake mumbles into his cheek, which he has sank back down to press his lips to again. “Because you haven’t tried to ruin anything in awhile.” He says it like he knows Kaz wants to ruin everything, like Kaz is just waiting for the chance to mess things up. Like he knows Kaz has planned something, that his silence is double-edged.

Says it like he  _ knows _ Kaz. 

Anger really flares this time, and the shove he gives Snake is enough to force the bigger man to have to catch himself before he tumbles onto his back. Kaz has a snarl painted across his face, and is already starting to get up to force Snake out of the room when Snake raises his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Their little brawl is enough to wake Eli, who makes a whiny noise into the mat before rolling over. His eyes light up when they see Snake, pushes the sleep away quick.

Kaz huffs, drops back down to bury his nose into David’s hair and ignore Snake. If he wants to act like he knows what Kaz is thinking, then so be it. When has Kaz’s anger ever stopped any Snake?

With his back turned like that, Kaz can only barely hear the whispered conversation between Eli and Snake, but his shoulders are stiff, unable to relax. He’ll show them betrayal, when he takes the kids and disappears. 

Eli eventually crawls over Kaz’s hip, makes big puppy dog eyes at the way Kaz has David cuddled to him, and drags the blanket up over both of their heads as he pulls it with him to lay by Kaz’s head. That’s a little irritating, but Kaz just sighs, closes his eyes.

Snake hasn’t left yet, Kaz can feel his presence at his lower back. He’s waiting for Eli to be asleep, Kaz figures, and wonders if he can feign sleep enough to make Snake leave.

He can’t, it turns out, because once Eli’s breath slows, Snake is at Kaz’s back under the blanket, arm tight around his waist. 

“You should let me finish,” he whispers, mouth moving against the back of his neck.

When Kaz doesn’t reply, trying to pretend to be asleep, Snake bites him, which is so surprising he almost wakes both the toddlers up with his jump. 

“I want to help you,” he says, quietly, into his throat, tongue flicking out to soothe the sting of the bite. “If you want help, I’m here.”

Kaz sighs, his shoulders dropping the tension they had in them. The reflexive anger he always feels burns away too quickly, it always has, with both Snakes. It’s getting sweaty underneath the blanket like this, which is maybe not helping his thought process.

“I want out, with the kids.” Kaz whispers, doesn’t care if Snake can hear him or not. “They shouldn’t have this life, shouldn’t be stuck into war like us.”

“I can make sure you’re never found,” Snake says, and Kaz peels the blanket down from over their heads, waits to make sure Eli hasn’t woken back up, and then rolls completely over Snake so they have some distance from the kids. 

Snake turns on his other side to follow him, and Kaz kisses him hard the second he’s facing him.

He’s so unexpected. It should be insulting to him that Kaz still reacts to him like he’s the man he’s not. It should be frustrating that Kaz can barely keep his anger down when his pride is bruised. The other Snake certainly gave up on him in that regard, but here’s this Snake, unflinching in the face of Kazuhira Miller’s unwavering fatal flaw.

The feeling he has is making him crazy, something like gratitude and relief and, he would never admit it, love, clogging his throat and his mind. Snake is gripping his sides hard, pulling him flush to his body. They can’t do anything...explicit with all the babies in the room, but they make out like they haven’t in years now, Kaz’s metal hand in Snake’s hair and his flesh hand on his cheek. 

 

⟶

 

The babies are quiet, thankfully, as Snake drops them off at the airport. It’s small, only three planes fly out of it, and the pilot is one Kaz has known for years, unaffiliated with the base, but associated because of smuggling. Ocelot and Snake do not have the connections Kaz does, because Kaz does all the business. He meets with all the people who facilitate their operation, so finding a flight away is not hard. Especially one that cannot be tracked. 

Snake drove them in a jeep, George was cranky because of how rough the ride was, but Eli and David thought it was the most fun they had ever experienced. It’s also early, near dawn. A specifically chosen time when the least amount of people are up and around base.

The twins mill about Kaz’s legs anxiously, George is placed in a sling across his chest. 

When Snake comes around the jeep, Kaz sighs, stares at the ground for a second. Snake’s hand is on his chin in an instant, pulling his face up so they can look at each other. There’s a long silence, even though David and Eli are loudly talking to each other, Kaz can’t hear them, feels a little lost in Snake. 

Amazing, how this man who isn’t even  _ him _ possesses the same aura, can still make men forget everything they thought just to be near him, enchants everyone who looks. 

Snake presses their lips together, one last goodbye, George making noises of protest from being smushed between them, the two toddlers making grossed out noises. 

“Trust me, Kaz,” Snake says, fingers dug into Kaz’s hair. 

Kaz brings a hand up to Snake’s cheek, cups it and pulls back a little. 

There’s one thing he hasn’t told anyone, one thing he’s known for years now.

“V,” Kaz says, licks his lips nervously. “I knew immediately. Very few people knew him better than me, and he was a fool for thinking I wouldn’t notice. You’re taller than him. You’re nicer than him, and you cared when he wouldn’t.”

Taking a step back, Kaz lets his hand drop from Snake’s cheek so he can pick up their bags. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Kaz says, but Snake just smiles at him.


End file.
